Dog

Loyal, energetic, and endlessly enthusiastic about sport and people.

Whether bounding across a racing paddock at Cheltenham or throwing herself into coverage of the London 2012 Olympics with infectious, wholehearted joy, she radiates the pure, uncomplicated enthusiasm that defines the dog personality at its finest. Claire Balding's decades-long loyalty to the sports she loves — from horse racing, where she grew up steeped in the world of her training family, to her tireless championing of Paralympic athletes before the wider world caught up — mirrors the dog's most celebrated trait: unwavering devotion to a chosen pack and purpose. Her famous warmth with interviewees, often coaxing genuinely emotional moments from athletes and ordinary people alike, reflects the dog's instinctive, tail-wagging need to connect. Energetic, pack-oriented, and constitutionally incapable of phoning it in, she is the dog personality made gloriously, exuberantly real.